Proposal

For my second semester 20% time project I would like to start watercolor painting. Alongside politics and public policy, I also enjoy learning about art and attempting to create something artistic. Some of my family members, like my mother and her mother, prefer watercolor over another medium and my middle school art teacher told me that after she retired, she hoped to paint with watercolor more; there has to be something, besides something art related, that can be learned from it. Personally, I want to spend more of my free time relaxing while also being productive. I cannot say that I have any specific achievements, but I would like to finish a piece in about two weeks time. As I experiment with the medium, I also want to consider different styles of art. Practicing over time will hopefully improve my artistic abilities and maybe I will become somewhat decent at watercolor painting. During class, there is a lot that I can do. Learning about different types of art and thoroughly researching them will help me grow as someone who likes art. That knowledge from my research can then be applied to my own art. Another way I plan on spending my class time is to practice simple sketching, because without a preliminary idea/sketch, I have difficulty moving on. Lastly, I will also spend my time creating some type of blog which my art and research can be accessible.

Reflection Week 15

Though I failed to finish the video by the deadline for C-SPAN's StudentCam project, I still would to finish it somehow. Fortunately, I have excerpts from videos and other forms of information that I can present in class. When I started off with this project, which took my awhile to actually start, I knew that the Citizens United was a complex and important court case, but now I know even more about it and the parts that make it up. One interesting thing that I learned is that Hillary Clinton, who is leading in national polling in the 2016 Democratic Primaries, takes advantage of what the majority in Citizens United ruled. The lobbying group Citizens United created a political documentary about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic Primaries, and it was shown on television within thirty days of the first elections of the Primary. The distribution of the film was in violation of §203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).

Reflection Week 14

As the dead line approaches, I started the process of editing parts of videos that would work well for my project. I noticed two things: one, my editing skills are not the best and two, it is hard to find shorter segments on my topic. Luckily, through practice I think my editing should improve over time. However, finding 20 to 45 seconds long segments on something as complex as the Citizens United case can sometimes come off as vague. In oral argument, most of the justices give concrete, short answers, while the lawyer usually give long, complicated answers. Also, trying to give a holistic view of my topic and the case surrounding it has made me narrow down the aspects of the problem I wish to address in my video compilation.

Reflection Week 12

I will be putting together my video soon, as the deadline for C-SPAN's StudentCam 2016 competition is January 20, 2016. I organized my notes on articles that were on Citizens United v. FEC and also legal documents pertaining to the case. Doing this made me realize just how dynamic the problem is and how there are so many ways to investigate the corrupt political process; this may be hard for me to put into a mere five to seven minute video, trying to express my position and backing up my assertions with evidence. It is unfortunately not in C-SPAN's library of videos, but I watched "Citizen Koch" on Netflix, the documentary explained the relationship between "big money" and democracy. Obviously the documentary was against money in politics, but it showed how the vast majority of Americans are against the current system, regardless of their political ideologies.

Reflection Week 9

This week was mostly uneventful for me just because I spent it looking for videos/resources for my own video for CSPAN's StudentCam 2016. I made a MyC-SPAN account to gain access to all of their videos. CSPAN offered me a wide variety of videos to choose from. I watched "Impact of Citeizens United v. FEC" in parts, in the video law professors and political commentators commented on the Court's decision. I also enjoyed "Supreme Court Argument on Campaign Finance" with Adam Liptak. Liptak is a journalist at the New York Times and does a great job at explaining what goes in the Supreme Court and how the Justices' decisions affect us all. I plan on watching a video later with Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Harry Reid (D-NV) on campaign finance. In the video, Senator Reid proposes an amendment in response to the Court's decision, to grant states the right to control campaign finance.

Reflection Week 6

I reread the Supreme Court’s majority opinions (and its concurrences) alongside its dissent. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the Court’s opinion using the First Amendment as his source, stating: “When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.” Kennedy also argued that “[t]he government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether.” The author of the dissend, Justice Stevens, wrote: “The basic premise underlying the court’s ruling is its iteration, and constant reiteration, of the proposition that the First Amendment bars regulatory distinctions based on a speaker’s identity, including its ‘identity’ as a corporation. While that glittering generality has rhetorical appeal, it is not a correct statement of the law.” This case would only add to the big “debate” over whether or not corporations are people (just writing that sentence made my brain hurt). As Justice Ginsburg would say, “A corporation is a form of business enterprise. It gives the owners a certain advantage; they’re not going to be liable for the debts of the corporation beyond the capital of the corporation itself.”

Reflection Week 5

I listened to the two oral arguments of Citizens United v. FEC, the first one occurred on March 24, 2009 and the second on September 9, 2009. I had listened to both recordings before, thanks to

Oyez, a law project that grants access to the majority of the Court’s cases, arguments, and opinions to everyone. It was a different experience hearing the then Solicitor General Elena Kagan speak on behalf of the federal government, rather than on the bench as one of the nine justices. Kagan delivered the same fiery disputation as a lawyer as she does as a justice on the court. An important fact is one of the individual’s who argued for Citizens United. Theodore B. Olson represented Citizens United, he was also a solicitor general under President George W. Bush, and he just so happens to represent the Koch Brothers, just two brothers are worth over $100bn.

Reflection Week 4

I devoted my time on reading, analyzing, and looking deeper into one of the most important articles/resources regarding Citizens United v. FEC. In May of 2012 (almost three years after the Court’s decision) Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker released “Money Unlimited” which would later be known as almost a tell-all. The main argument within the article, supported by vast amounts of evidence, is that Chief Justice John Roberts was not impartial in the case and legislated on the bench, or judicial activism. A judge is to remain without bias and to interpret law, not to act in his or her own court. Going all the way back to 2003, Toobin brings up how CJ Roberts told conservatives that the Supreme Court was ready and looking for a case to declare the McCain-Feingold Act unconstitutional. Then Toobin brought up that citizens cannot escape advertisements (regarding the 30 and 60-day restrictions before elections), but they can voluntarily avoid reading a book about a candidate, by simply not reading it. During oral argument, the more conservative Supreme Court Justices, like Justice Samuel Alito, trapped Malcolm Stewart (arguing for the respondent) in saying that Congress could prohibit both advertisements and books within the periods. CJ Roberts is also accused for judicial activism again because of his decision for reargument. There were two oral arguments for this case, spanning two of the Court’s terms. One reason  for reargument was to expand the majority opinion’s interpretation and secondly to stop Justice David Souter’s dissent from being published in the Court’s official opinion. Justice Souter was retiring at the end of the 2008-2009 term and therefore held no constraint in his dissent and accused Roberts of acting for his own personal gain. In response, Roberts let the case go for reargument in the next term, following the retirement of Souter, and the dissent was written by Justice John Paul Stevens.

Reflection Week 3

This week I looked at the numbers regarding how groups of Americans view the political process and campaign finance. Luckily, the New York Times created a graphic with data from CBS News Polls to explain how American adults view this complex and significant topic. By looking at the numbers, I tried figuring out if the country was split on campaign finance reform based on their political leanings or if this issue is equally important to the average American, regardless of their ideologies. According to the poll, 90% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans believe money has too much of an influence in the political process and within government. 58% of Americans believe both parties benefit from money in politics, while 54% of Americans think unlimited campaign spending is not free speech. Independents, I would argue, are leading the reform for campaign finance as 59% of them believe in quid pro quo corruption (most of the time) and 53% of them support a complete reconstruction of political funding. A surprising statistic is that 66% of American adults that make over $100K a year also believe candidates promote policies (most of the time) that are related to their donors.

Reflection 2

The past week I submitted what I thought would be my final submission, but with help from Ms. Roy, I decided to participate in CSPAN's StudentCam 2016 contest. Since the beginning of 20%, I had a difficult time creating a project that had a main focus to it. I thought about writing short stories and essays, but that had no overall theme to it. By creating a video for CSPAN's contest, I get to make something that has a clear goal; create a video about a topic that the presidential nominees should talk about this election. My topic came to mind as soon as Ms. Roy told me about the project. One of the most important problems our country faces is campaign finance reform, 66% of American believe there is too much money in the political process, 46% of Americans support a completely rebuilt system and 39% believe in fundamental changes (NYT 2015). Initially, I did not have any drive for this project because I could not think of something that was interesting and would last the full year. This week I plan of researching the campaign finance system and how different Americans view it.

Proposal

For my 20% project, I plan on participating in CSPAN's StudentCam 2016. My project will consist of creating a five to seven minute long video on what issues I want presidential-hopefuls to discuss. The goal of this project is to create a video that inspires people to think and ask questions that will be significant in the upcoming presidential election. Though there are prizes involved, I am doing this out of my own interest in politics and law. For this project I will have to thoroughly research the issues that are the most important to me. The first issue that comes to mind is campaign finance reform and the Supreme Court's opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Another issue I will probably discuss is income inequality. The research part of this project will be easy and I will enjoy it because politics has always intrigued me and this is the first election I will be able to vote in. I will, however, have a difficult time trying to address our nation's most important problems in less than seven minutes. It also may be difficult to find a particular video in CSPAN's video library, especially anything pertaining to the Supreme Court. January 20, 2016 is the deadline for this project, which gives me plenty of time for planning/writing, filming, and editing.

During class time I will plan out what I want in my video and then I will start researching and writing. Outside of the class, I will still research but the main focus will be filming and editing. Filming and editing can be very tedious, I do not think I would have enough time during 20% time to accomplish anything significant for the video.